Background: COVID-19 pandemic enmeshed all people across the globe in myriad of problems and adversely affected their physical and mental health. Among all, patients who had been infected with COVID-19 might be at higher risk of psychological distress for obvious reasons. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to find out the prevalence and level of perceived stress and coronavirus-specific anxiety in patients affected by COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on in-patients of a COVID-19 designated hospital who were about to get discharged. After screening the eligible patients with GHQ-12, patients who gave consent were interviewed with perceived stress scale (PSS)-4 and coronavirus anxiety scale. Results: Mean age of the study population was 41 years and majority (54.4%) belonged to 40–60 years of age. Slight preponderance of females (54.1%) noted and17.4% lost their source of income and encountered acute financial crisis. Mean duration of stay in the hospital was 10.2 (±4.4) days. Mean perceived stress and coronavirus-specific anxiety were 9.6 (±2.2) and 10.39 (±3.1), respectively. Loss of a family member due to COVID-19 infection, active COVID-19 infection in any family member, poor social support, and financial crisis were the factors correlated with higher PSS scores. Conclusion: Psychosocial factors contributed significantly for the higher level of perceived stress in COVID-19 patients in our study.

Background: The proportion of elderly increases worldwide. India entered into the list of “greying nation”. The process of biological ageing brings with it various illnesses. This study was conducted with the objective of determining the morbidity profile of elderly people residing in a rural area.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly aged 60 years and above residing in rural area of Puducherry. Simple random sampling was used to select two sub-centre areas among four, under the field practice area and all the eligible elderly individuals were included. House to house visit was made and after obtaining informed consent, the data were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and examination.Results: A total of 954 individuals were included in the study of which 66.4% and 33.6% of them were females and males respectively (Mean: 68 ± 6.8 years). Acute and chronic illnesses were present among 4% and 47.7% of elderly individuals respectively. Hypertension (42.5%) was observed to be the predominant chronic illness followed by Diabetes (29.6%), Osteoarthritis (8.1%) and Asthma (7.9%), Visual problems (4.3%), Coronary artery disease (2.9%), Cerebrovascular accident (1.2%) and hearing problems (0.9%).Conclusions: Chronic illnesses were more common among elderly than acute illnesses. Hence it is recommended to screen elderly individuals utilizing the platform of community based assessment for non-communicable diseases. The study also recommends implementing stringent tobacco control measures so as to curtail the silent epidemic of non-communicable diseases.